Andrew Osmond tours the remote-work-friendly studio and gets the lowdown on Polygon Picture's latest work, Kaina of the Great Snow Sea.― In December 2022, I had the fortune to visit Polygon Pictures, the digital studio whose latest series, Kaina of the Great Snow Sea, recently began on Crunchyroll. Polygon's previous titles include Knights of Sidonia, based on a manga by Tsutomu Nihei, who also orig...
Director Hiroyuki Hashimoto returns from 1st anime― A stage reading in the Magical Girl Raising Project franchise announced on Sunday that an anime adaptation of Asari Endō's Magical Girl Raising Project Restart light novel volumes has been green-lit. Hiroyuki Hashimoto reported on Twitter that he will return from the first Magical Girl Raising Project anime as the director. The franchise's Twitter ...
Bookworm short stories, Reincarnated Mage with Inferior Eyes, A Pale Moon Reverie, more licensed― J-Novel Club announced on Friday that it has licensed 10 new light novels and four new manga titles. The company additionally announced it will be adding state sales tax for 11 states on subscriptions and other purchases in the future, and also revealed a new rental system. The newly announced light nov...
Kenji Studio cancels campaign for Santa Company: Secret of Christmas, Kickstarter suspends campaign for Santa Company: Midsummer Merry Christmas― Kenji Itoso's Kenji Studio canceled its Kickstarter campaign for the English-dubbed and English-subtitled version of the Santa Company: Secret of Christmas (Santa Company: Christmas no Himitsu) anime film on January 14. The campaign had raised US$7,288 of ...
Chikahiro Kobayashi, Yusuke Kobayashi, Makoto Koichi, Daiki Yamashita join April anime― Twin Engine debuted a new video on Monday to announce and preview four more cast members for the television anime of Yūji Kaku's Hell's Paradise: Jigokuraku manga. The newly announced cast members are: Chikahiro Kobayashi as Yamada Asaemon Shion Yusuke Kobayashi as Yamada Asaemon Tenza Makoto Koichi as Nurugai Da...
Manga ends in 22nd volume on May 17, same day as new novel― This year's eighth issue of Kodansha's Weekly Shōnen Magazine revealed on Wednesday that Oh! great's manga adaptation of NisiOisin's Bakemonogatari novels will enter its final arc, and it will end in seven chapters. Kodansha will publish the 22nd and final compiled book volume on May 17. NisiOisin also announced that a new novel in the ser...
Asuna's story continues in the second Progressive film, opening in theaters in the U.S. on February 3. Find out more about her and Kirito's growing friendship and see the continuation of her rocky relationship with Mito.― Sword Art Online the Movie -Progressive- Scherzo of Deep Night is the second Sword Art Online Progressive film, and it picks up the story a bit less than a month after the end of A...
Neptunia Sisters VS Sisters isn't doing anything new in the JRPG space, but is it at least a fun ride?― The Hyperdimension Neptunia franchise has been pretty extensive since 2010. Including the mainline games and the spin-offs, there have been over a dozen games released for the franchise spanning various genres, from online card games to side-scrolling action games to hack-and-slash games with rhyt...
Major revelations will be blithely glossed over, and new characters are thrown at the audience who get one or two scenes to make clear that they're supposed to be somewhat relevant or important, but with no connective context as to why.― There's an element of presumed prestige to the back half of this Muv-Luv Alternative anime adaptation. And why shouldn't there be? The original visual novel is a pr...
The possibilities in The Legend of Mana: The Teardrop Crystal seem endless. Sadly, a show is not just possibilities and vibes— The Teardrop Crystal struggles with executing a meaningful plot.― I went into The Legend of Mana: The Teardrop Crystal anime with a very patchwork understanding of the original game. I have never played the original title from 1999 nor had a chance to play the recent remaste...
Jean-Karlo dives into the recent rumor of a "lost" Fire Emblem game, why Hi-Fi Rush isn't the Jet Set Radio successor he wants, and how AI helped botch the Persona 3 Portable remaster.― Hello, everyone! Here we are again, on the verge of the weekend. We've got tons of fun stuff to talk about this week! The year is starting to kick in with plenty of awesome stuff to discuss. Unfortunately, not all of...
Find out why this fan-made event has resulted in some of the most exciting moments in this Final Fantasy XIV and MMO history.― Final Fantasy XIV's newest “Ultimate” boss fight was released on Tuesday. With it, competitors, streamers, viewers, and casters are gathered once again to commentate and celebrate a fan-made event that has resulted in some of the most exciting moments in this game's history,...
Kim explains how it's not just COVID, but shortcomings of the industry itself, that led to three anime productions' schedule crashes.― This time, we interrupt the regular reader-submitted questions with some “behind the headlines” analysis. Kim asked: Three Aniplex shows—NieR:Automata Ver 1.1a, UniteUp!, and Ayakashi Triangle—have recently announced delays due to COVID-19. Is COVID actually a probl...
A name like Junji Ito deserves a worthwhile anime adaptation. Yet here we are with another installment from Studio DEEN. Did you watch Junji Ito "Collection"? It's more of that, which is to say, a muddy-looking series of stories that fail to scare.― A name like Junji Ito deserves a worthwhile anime adaptation. Yet here we are with another installment from Studio DEEN. Did you watch Junji Ito "Colle...
Fire Emblem Engage has had a rough time coming. The art style left a lot of people unconvinced, and it's coming on the heels of the widely-beloved Fire Emblem: Three Houses. How does Intelligent Systems' newest strategy RPG hold up?― Fire Emblem Engage has had a rough time coming. The title was weird, the art style left a lot of people unconvinced, and it's coming on the heels of the widely-beloved ...
There's difficulty in terms of enemy mobs, surprise enemies with bumped-up Morale, and bosses that require mastery in deflection, but Wo Long is surprisingly welcoming to even the most inexperienced of Souls-like players.― While Koei Tecmo already has one foot in the “Souls”-like genre courtesy of their Nioh series, it seems they want to take a second bite at the apple with their upcoming “masocore”...